March 1994 Deer damaqe measured (Continued from Page 1) pattern of foraging on your crops can be broken, he pointed out. The third control option is to fence an orchard or field. And it may not be as expensive as farmers think, Parkhurst said. 'If you pro-rate those (fencing) costs... and do a cost-analysis of what you're going to potentially lose in that same time frame if you do nothing, you'll find that fencing will veiy often pay for itself within a period of one to five years," he said. Unfortunately, no control method is fool-proof. Parkhurst said once deer Is your Income being (j squeezed too tight by Health Insurance /-^^^^-xCosts? CALL: 1 -800-229-7779 And find out about Group Health Plans for Small Businesses It's worth a FREE Phone Call! Don't delay call 1-800-229-7779 or write Virginia Farm Bureau Service Corp., Att: Health Care Consultants P.O. Box 27552., Richmond, Virginia 23261 These Virginia central test stations will test 357 and sell 238 bulls (the top two-thirds)...

14 THE FARMERS MARKET A Free Service to Members Classified advertising guidelines Farm Bureau Members: Non-Members: One 15-word ad per month is FREE to each Ads are 30 cents per word; $4.50 minimum member. If ad runs more than 15 words, charge (15 words). member must pay TOTAL number of words Single letters or figures and groups of figures in ad. (Example: a 15-word ad is free, a without separation count as one word, 16-word ad is $3.20, the minimum, at a hyphenated words as two. 20-cent-per-word rate.) &amp;gt; Payment MUST accompany order. We do not bill for classified ads. &amp;gt; Please type or print your ad and mail it to: Farm Bureau News classifieds, P.O. Box 27552, Richmond, VA 23261. CLASSIFIED ADS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED OVER THE PHONE. I Deadline: Ads must be received by the 15th of each month prior to the month of publication. For the combined Sept/Oct issue, the deadline is Aug. 15. For the Decyjan. issue, the deadline is Nov. 15. Ads must be RE-SUBMITTED by the d...

Vol 53, No. 2 THE VOICE OF VIRGINIA'S AGRICULTURAL PRODUCERS March 1994 I l I m l mm 11 i j, 1 LI 1 I i II j m I I I m J &amp;lt; M I I 1 I I I - I I I I I GREG HICKS/FBN Window on Winter Virginians looking out their windows in recent months have seen ice and snow like this covering the lake in front of Farm Bureau's home office in Goochland County. However, blue skies have also been spotted, hinting that spring is just around the bend. ► A full range of life insurance programs ► Some of Virginia's most competitive Til auto &amp;amp; home insurance rates HHHJhAiiAMAfI Completefarmowners protection | &amp;gt;|IJ ► A wide range of health insurance plans Virginia Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company Virginia Farm Bureau Fire and Casualty Damaging deer 1 YF conference 7 Peanut trouble? 9 Happy members 11 Deer causing extensive From a hoe-down to the President Clinton's Farm Bureau policyholders damage in Virginia, survey low-down o...

Far m Bureau Vol 53, No. 3 Ag suffers another round of budget cuts By NORM HYDE VFBF Broadcast Editor RlCHMOND—Virginia farmers will see their state programs shrink in the coming fiscal year, even as some red tape is eliminated. When all the dust settled at the General Assembly March 12, the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service, agricultural research programs at Virginia Tech and the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services had all suffered yet another multi-million-dollar round of budget cuts. At the same time, the legislature agreed with requests to make it easier to build or expand new livestock operations, and to study whether to impose new land-use restrictions on western Virginia farmers. "While we're pleased the legislature agreed with farmers on the need to reduce bureaucracy, we're disappointed with the final budget plan," said C. Wayne Ashworth, president of the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation. "After almost five years of budget cuts, we had hoped it woul...

2 "I always wondered how the government set milk prices Farmers get blue when others don't realize they're 'green' Farmers often find themselves at odds with armchair environmentalists who have little practical knowledge of dealing with the natural envi- ronment. They also have trouble understanding radical environmentalists who consider agri- culture a misuse of the environment. Since there are too many of us on this planet to return to primitive ways of hunting game and gathering nuts and berries, agriculture is here to stay. But, so too is environmentalism. Farmers have no problem with that. At the American Farm Bureau Annual Convention in January, one of the conferences was titled, "We're Not Blue About Being Green." The conference highlighted innovative programs of environmental stewardship. The theme also expressed the viewpoint of most farmers and ranchers. They too are environmentalists and are more than willing to deal with environmental problems in a responsible way. In Mi...

April 1994 Budget falls short for agriculture (Continued from Page 1) research and Extension program runs about $150,000 a year; three county Extension agents cost about $100,000 a year. "If you looked at it that way, we're talking about four or five research programs" that may have to be cut, he said. But Swiger said he'd try not to cut Extension agents and other field staff further. "We might have to concentrate more on downsizing here in Blacksburg than out in the field," Swiger said. "It might be that we don't get rid of any agents." He believes some costs can be saved by the consolidation of research and Extension programs under one division at the university, a move the General Assembly also approved. The assembly did provide $306,000 in new money both years of the biennium for a seafood safety initiative Tech had requested. The fate of the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg is in limbo, after the assembly budgeted just $400,000 in general funds for it, and ...

April 1994 Garden plans require asking gardener '20 questions' Whenever I am asked to help someone plan a new vegetable garden, I begin by engaging him or her in a game of 20 questions . . . not literally 20 questions of course, but several key questions, the answers of which I consider necessary for planning a potentially successful garden My first question to a gardener is twofold: "What vegetables do those who will share in the harvest like? How many times a week would they like to eat each vegetable in season?" No matter how pretty a row of okra plants look in bloom, there is little sense in growing what won't be used in meal preparation. The ideal table garden has small quantities of vegetables ripening over a long period of time. By using frost protection devices and successive plantings, the harvest period of most vegetables can be extended well beyond what can be achieved without these extra provisions. "Are any crops to be canned, frozen, or stored?" If so, I ask the garden...

6 Consumers can't be fooled by new labels If you've been fooled in the past by nutrition claims made on products, you can rest assured that it won't happen again. No longer will you have to worry that the "light" product you bought is merely lighter in color, nor will your "cholesterol-free" product have the possibility of being loaded with fat. All of these nutrient content claims are strictly regulated on the new food labels due out next month. First off, all products will be starting on an even playing field because serving sizes for similar foods must be the same. Ice cream and frozen yogurt, for example, will have to list nutrition information on a 1/2-cup serving. No more frustration in the freezer case trying to compare 4 ounces of one brand with 3 of another. Serving sizes are also more realistic —they're based on amounts of food people really eat. You may have noticed that some of the "fat-free" products on the market list rather minuscule serving sizes. The fat-free loaf c...

April 1994 Virginia Farm Bureau insurance agents learn secrets to success BY KATHY DIXON Farm Bureau News Editor RICHMOND —Insurance agents, district managers, agency managers and other guests at this year's Virginia Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company Annual Sales Conference learned an important lesson. &amp;lt;4 When opportunity doesn't go the way you expect, don't quit," said Alfred T. "Skip" Wilkins, the motivational speaker for the conference. Wilkins was a promising high school athlete who became a quadriplegic after a water skiing accident. "I had it all," Wilkins recalled. "I had 20 college football scholarship offers, girlfriends, my family. I was so lucky. "And then I was forced to deal with just trying to survive." He reminded those attending the conference that even when their sales records are high and they are winning awards, they shouldn't forget the important things in life, such as faith, family and friends. "The reason I didn't quit when I went from a supersta...

April 1994 Sheep numbers in Virginia continue to decline in '94 (Continued from Page 1) business.] But I was raising them for my pocket, not the coyotes," he added. Ironically, many Virginia farmers who have gone out of the sheep business have done so because sheep weren't padding their pockets. Ron Roudabush says prices for lamb meat are no better today than 30 years ago. 1 got 50 cents a pound when I started [in 1966]," Roudabush said. "And I got 50 cents a pound last summer." But lamb prices may go back up in 1994, according to Jim Robb, agricultural economist for the Livestock Marketing Information Center. Because the number of sheep farmers abandoning the profession continues to increase, Robb predicted lamb prices this spring may be $8 to $10 above a year ago. That still doesn't help wool prices, which have been steadily declining. And a government subsidy program for wool will be phased out by 1996. Roudabush says wool prices are about a third of what they were five years ago...

10 Sometimes You find The Answer a } In The Strangest 1 \ Places! Who would ever think of looking in a / V * 1( 1 Farm Bureau office for the answer to € their health insurance needs? / ( $1,700 \ )- ( Savings )f~ Mrs. V.S. of Russell County, Va. did — and she found the answer: L _/L \ "I saved over $1,700 in annual premiums• So did more than 25,000 Virginians — and they found the answers to their health insurance problems. We know the average American is finding it tough to find adequate health insurance and to pay his medical bills. That's why the VIRGINIA FARM BUREAU has teamed up with BLUE CROSS and BLUE SHIELD OF VIRGINIA to offer several health insurance programs designed to fit your needs. SO CHECK US OUT IF YOUR PROBLEM IS OR IF YOU WANT • I don't have health insurance • Wide range of coverage in and • Insurance costs too much out of the hospital • Insurance I have doesn't give • Savings on your health insurance me good coverage • Prescription drug coverage • Doctor and hospi...

April 1994 Soybean growers say yes RICHMOND—The soybean checkoff program will continue. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced March 11 that 54 percent of the soybean growers who voted in a referendum in February said yes to continuing the self-assessment program. The checkoff program collects 50 cents from every $100 of soybeans sold to pay for research and promotion programs. It raised $23.9 million last year. Virginia soybean growers were firmly "I Can't Believe It," She Says Woman "Rubs Away" Arthritis Pain After Reading Free Booklet Man Ends Backache Misery, Plays Tennis Again CHICAGO (special)-Neighbors of this notice. Information in its were astounded when a woman pages is usually accessible only to who for years had suffered from specialists. arthritis was discovered busily "Body Pain: What It Is and How sweeping her walkway to Relieve It" is available only from The woman then exercised by its publisher. riding a bicycle. "I thought I was doomed to Asked about her tran...

14 THE FARMERS MARKET A Free Service to Members Classified advertising guidelines Farm Bureau Members: Non-Members: One 15-word ad per month is FREE to each Ads are 30 cents per word; $4.50 minimum member. If ad runs more than 15 words, charge (15 words). member must pay TOTAL number of words Single letters or figures and groups of figures in ad. (Example: a 15-word ad is free, a without separation count as one word, 16-word ad is $3.20, the minimum, at a hyphenated words as two. 20-cent-per-word rate.) I Payment MUST accompany order. We do not bill for classified ads. I Please type or print your ad and mail it to: Farm Bureau News classifieds, P.O. Box 27552, Richmond, VA 23261. CLASSIFIED ADS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED OVER THE PHONE. I Deadline: Ads must be received by the 15th of each month prior to the month of publication. For the combined SeptVOct. issue, the deadline is Aug. 15. For the Dec./ Jan. issue, the deadline is Nov. 15. Ads must be RE-SUBMITTED by the deadline for each is...